New Business TechnologyNews and insight on the latest technology for business2014-11-01T06:34:36Zhttp://newbusinesstechnology.co.uk/feed/atom/WordPressJason Carterhttp://newbusinesstechnology.co.uk/?p=7642014-10-24T01:49:29Z2013-03-07T22:11:57ZThough we have seen great technological advances in recent years, the office printer remains as valuable as ever. Improved technology has also helped to make it easier for businesses to produce printed material in-house, from leaflets to brochures.

Why An Office Needs A Printer

Whether it’s for printing business cards, or printing out documents and letters, an office continues to need a printer. Printers also help to give a business a certain amount of gravitas. Though businesses can use emails to communicate with customers and clients, a letter printed on a company letterhead still looks more official and impressive.

Using a printer to print out copies of important information, such as memos, can still be a better way of distributing information to employees than by email – which may not always reach its intended destination. Distributing printed information also helps for workers to interact with each other face to face, rather than emailing information.

Even when an office prefers to use email to distribute information within a business, problems can occur, such as a lost Internet connection. When a functioning printer is already in the office then the problem won’t seem so acute. Printers are also a useful way of backing up information, and especially so regarding important and recent emails, which may become inaccessible when a network is down.

Benefits Of The Multifunction Printer

A multifunction printer is also a boon for any office, and also Casino En Ligne the environment, because of its ability to do the tasks of several standalone machines. Because a multifunction printer can scan and make photocopies it also helps to improve the amount of free office space – space which might normally be set aside for a scanner and/or photocopier. A multifunction printer can also be used to send and receive faxes and emails.Continued Improvements In Printing Technology

Environmental concerns about the use of printers have been met by the availability of recycled paper, the ability to refill ink cartridges, and by printers generally having less of an impact on the environment – such as the Epson WorkForce Pro Series, where the only part that has to be replaced is the cartridge, and which is a printer that has a strong emphasis on low energy consumption.

The speed of printers continues to increase, which makes it even easier to distribute printed material more quickly. This is also advantageous when there’s a need to get memos printed and distributed quickly. The advent of the colour printer has also allowed for companies to be bolder, by being able to produce full colour brochures or booklets quickly and in-house.

Printing will no doubt progress and utilize more and more facilities in the future. There also remains the human issue. People do tend to prefer the tangible feeling that something printed on paper brings, rather than something that has been sent electronically.

]]>0Jason Carterhttp://newbusinesstechnology.co.uk/?p=7592014-10-24T02:01:25Z2013-03-07T22:01:50ZBarbara Kroll, UK Managing Director of Twinfield questions, how is the steady migration from on-premise accounting software to online accounting affecting the relationship between businesses and their accountants?

Thereâs no doubt that online accounting is quickly becoming prevalent in the UK, not least because it allows easier any-time access, a reduction in admin processes and lower start-up costs.

So, how should accounting practices respond to this new business landscape?Â What impact will it have on the way they run their own practices and the way they interact with their customers?

The advantages of online accounting are clear.Â Firstly, for the end user it offers simplicity and ease of use, combined with 24/7 access, reduced IT and admin, genuine scalability and low start-up costs.Â What is good for your clients, of course, is ultimately good for you, but the steady drift to online accounting is not without its trials.

Online accounting has the ability to simplify and automate accounting functions, turning a service into something that may feel more like a commodity from the clientâs point of view.Â However, just as traditional, face to face banking is being challenged by online banking, online accounting has the potential to de-personalise accounting services.

Case study

Philip Woodgate, partner at Goodman Jones quickly identified the need to switch to an online accounting system, as he commented: âThe market has changed in recent years. Accountancy firms today need to be able to deliver more service for less. With growing pressure on price, we need to ensure that Goodman Jones continues to operate very efficiently and retains a strong team of specialists who can deliver high-level business advice to our clients.Â The Twinfield online accounting system was the answer to many of the issues that we faced. We have a number of international clients and remote staff in the UK and Ireland. We need to be able to connect our people and our clients anytime, anywhere. Thatâs not possible with traditional accounting systems.â

One of the main benefits of online accounting is that practices can embed themselves into the online accounting system, becoming the public face of that system.Â Clients can therefore log into the online system via their accountantâs own website.Â Monthly fees for the software can be incorporated into a single, inclusive charge for accounting services.Â By tying the technology and service elements together in this way, clients wonât be forced to treat the two as commodities.

Additionally, the opportunity to work collaboratively should be taken advantage of.Â This benefit arises quite simply from the fact that when you and your clients use an online accounting system itâs as if youâre sitting side by side, looking at the figures together.Â When either of you enters new information into the system, itâs immediately updated for all users.

In contrast, traditional systems tend to keep accountants and their clients at a distance.Â Usually when clients supply source documents or send in files to their accountant to process, however, the two may not discuss the results until much later.
Collaborative working which is made possible through the use of online accounting systems, has three main benefits forÂ practices.

1) Keeping ahead of the UK market
Collaboration has the potential to set you apart from the crowd and gives you a unique selling point.

Clients and accountants Blackjack Online who work collaboratively have the sense of working as a team.

2) Anytime, anywhere decisions
By giving all users shared access to accounting data which is updated in real-time, online accounting systems improve financial insight allowing companies to have instance visibility of business changes to enhance and improve company performance.

Collaborative working, based on real-time financial data, allows you the opportunity to offer advice anytime and anywhere.

3) Increased value
Working in parallel with your clients allows you to make better decisions, more quickly and gives the opportunity to sell added-value services such as business advice and tax planning.

Â Case study

Based in Liverpoolâs vibrant commercial heart, BWMacfarlane LLP is one of the leading, independent chartered accountancy practices in the area and a Top 100 firm, with seven partners and consultants and almost 50 staff.Â This progressive practice recently took a strategic decision to implement an online accounting system, as Lesley Malkin, audit partner at BWMacfarlane explained: âAbout five years ago we discussed the idea of online accounting with existing and potential clients but although there were a few flickers of interest there wasnât sufficient demand.Â Perhaps we were slightly ahead of the curve.Â Fast forward to 2012 and things are very different.Â Weâve now started using Twinfield online accounting and weâre getting a completely different response.Â All sorts of clients, who we might not have thought would be interested, are expressing an interest, so weâre really glad that weâre launching the service now, ahead of many of our competitors.Â I think part of the reason is that people are much more relaxed about storing data on the Cloud.Â Theyâve got used to online banking and e-filing for HMRC and buying a wide range of products and services online, so itâs something theyâre more comfortable with.Â Itâs a very significant shift in opinion compared to even a couple of years ago.”Â

“With online accounting itâs no longer an all or nothing approach â âHereâs some accounting software for you to do your books with.Â Weâll pop in once a quarter to see how youâre getting on.âÂ Itâs now far more flexible and much more collaborative.Â So clients might start off doing small amounts of the bookkeeping themselves, then decide they could do a bit more, taking it on in increments.Â For some clients, this might mean that our involvement in bookkeeping and basic compliance accounting will diminish over time.Â We then have the option of providing other services to them, besides tax planning and business consultancy, for example expanding the strategic advice and support they might want in the current economic climate and helping them to get a wider perspective on where theyâre going.Â We think that, in the long run, the Twinfield online accounting system will give us and our clients more flexibility.Â If a client only wants a compliance service, thatâs fine, but the new, collaborative model of working opens up more opportunities.Â Whatâs most important in all of this is what works for the client.Â Collaborative working is about developing the relationship with our clients, being part of their team rather than just the person they bring their financial records to once a year.Â Collaboration means helping our clients understand the options that are available to them, plan for the future and achieve their goals.â

Analyst house Gartnerâs recent prediction that 25 per cent of organisations will have their own âapp storeâ by 2017 has caught the attention of many, but IT professionals and executives have a lot to prepare before they can successfully roll out their enterprise app stores. This perhaps hasnât been highlighted enough.

Enterprise app stores deliver a number of advantages, including flexibility and staff empowerment, but once the floodgates open, it can be incredibly difficult for enterprises to manage software licensing and control entitlement and track actual software usage. Enterprise App stores are designed to give a consumer app store (iTunes)-like feel to them, but they have to actually be smarter than iTunes. For instance, they have to be able to run across complex environments such as Windows, virtualised environments, private and / or public clouds and SaaS â unlike consumer app stores that are designed to run primarily on specific operating systems. If users are downloading applications at will from enterprise free online blackjack video games app stores â simply trying out an app can potentially impact enterprisesâ licencing compliance.

Weâre walking a tightrope of enhanced user experience vs. licencing accountability â it is critical for enterprises to devise a strategy for executing and managing the app store environment and integrating some form of software licensing optimisation into corporate app stores in order to approve, track, manage and optimise usage of applications on it. The consequences of an unexpected, multi-million dollar true-up (annual balance check on software usage) can have a lasting economic impact whereas a little planning ahead of time can go a long way in curtailing unforeseen expenses.

In addition, by tying app stores into enterprisesâ back-end Application Readiness processes (i.e. application assessment, packaging, format conversion, editing, etc.) can ensure that store shelves are stocked with apps that are ready for immediate delivery to usersâ device of choice. This is essential to meet the demands of consumerisation of IT while minimising cost and risk to the organisation. Otherwise enterprises may find costs and software compliance spiralling out of control.

As technology advances, SMEs are gaining capabilities previously only available to larger enterprises. Cloud computing has proven to be an effective method of levelling the playing field: allowing SMEs to access a wide range of software, platforms and infrastructure as a service Put simply, by offering IT as a utility rather than a product, the cloud can offer cost effectiveness, operational efficiencies and scalability that is very desirable to most businesses. Cloud has become viable for SMEs as a means of supplying services both externally and in-house. They now need to know what they should be expecting from cloud providers and what they should be implementing in their own private cloud environments.

The cost efficiencies gained through using IT as a utility are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve with the traditional model of IT. However, in order to take advantage of the cloud, SMEs must ensure the foundation of the infrastructure is not built on quicksand. In order to do this they do not necessarily need to become experts in the technologies supporting cloud, but do need to ensure the infrastructure involved is resilient and recoverable if they are to maintain business critical operations.

Virtualisation has become the key technology for making the most of the cloud and had led to the point where cloud is now a viable solution for SMEs of all sizes. Without virtualisation, implementing the vast bank of physical servers needed to underpin a strong, reliable and most importantly flexible cloud infrastructure is a costly exercise. Â Virtualisation allows for more effective provisioning of physical IT resources and also provides the foundation on which cloud is based. However, like all technology the management of this virtual cloud infrastructure is absolutely critical to long-term success.

Some SMEs will have the resources and structure to make developing a private cloud worthwhile: essentially an in-house infrastructure offering services across the organisation which can bring substantial benefits in terms of increased efficiency and reduced costs when compared to the traditional IT model. However, in play money online poker this case it is imperative that the infrastructure is correctly managed and protected. All the cloud services in the world are worthless if IT infrastructure is difficult to manage or there are problems recovering data in the event of a disaster.

For most SMEs, using cloud-based services from external providers has allowed them to minimise costs while receiving the tools they need on-demand. However, these organisations need to ensure that they are using the right cloud provider with the right tools to manage services essential to their business. When choosing a provider, SMEs need to make sure that the provider has the right guarantee in their SLAs that they are able to quickly recover data in the event of a data outage and have minimal if not non-existent impact on their business operations.

Whether implementingÂ private cloud or using a public service, SMEs need to be aware that the implementation of new technology means new approaches are required. Ensuring the continual availability and recovery of data in the virtual environments that form the backbone of the cloud cannot be adequately done using the same tools and techniques that have served so well for physical environments. For example, in comparison to the several hours it takes to provision a physical server, a virtual machine (VM) takes literally minutes. Without using tools and techniques suited to the environment, performing traditional management tasks such as backup and recovery, adding and removing machines, and monitoring and allocating resources can be extremely cumbersome. This has a substantial impact on business efficiency.

SMEs looking to transform their business by making use of the coud could suffer a rude awakening if they or their providers simply rely on IT management techniques designed for the physical world to solve virtual world problems. Before making any significant investment or long term commitment, SMEs must ensure their dreams of the cloud are thoroughly grounded with solid management tools and techniques.

In the current economic climate itâs not hard to see why people are constantly looking for ways to help decrease the costs of running a business â and in many cases they find that one of the highest costs in any business is running the telephone system.

Although many people take a telephone system to be a necessary cost to business, it doesnât have to be this way and there are, in fact, many ways that you can keep your costs down by simply switching your plan, or choosing a telephone system which is more efficient for your needs. One popular option that many people consider in this situation is a VoIP system which can with any company who has a traditional landline.

VoIP systems are designed to make a business telephone system seamless and if you find that you constantly spend most of your day on the phone, then chances are that you will want to implement a system which makes this process as simple as possible. A simple and cost-effective system, VoIP systems are relatively easy to implement and understand, and at the same time they do give you the option to improve your existing system without having to introduce completely new infrastructure.

Key benefits of a VoIP system to your business

So fast approval payday loans youâve decided to change your systems up toÂ VoIP phone systems? Well if you do find yourself in this position the chances are that you will want to know exactly how to get the most out of your VoIP system. Here are some key benefits of a VoIP system at home:

Costs âÂ when used correctly VoIP systems can help to ensure that you are able to effectively keep your business costs down at relatively little initial cost to your business. The majority of VoIP systems are able to work well with your existing infrastructure and therefore you will require little initial outlay to implement them

Flexibility âÂ VoIP systems are designed to be incredibly flexible for your business and tailored to meet your needs. This means that they can grow and develop with your business without the need for new and more expensive infrastructure

Reliability âÂ if you are going to take on a VoIP system then itâs important that you put reliability at the forefront and ensure that you take the measures you need to make your system as reliable and functional as a traditional telephone system

Security âÂ internet connections might not be as secure as traditional telephone lines, so itâs important that you take the steps to make yours secure and add on some additional security features to your VoIP system.

]]>0Jason Carterhttp://newbusinesstechnology.co.uk/?p=7312014-10-24T03:42:59Z2012-12-06T20:52:51ZThis infographic was produced by UK Trade & Investment and hibu to highlight the economic benefits of exporting for UK businesses. Further information is available from the Open To Export website Payday Loans, which provides advice and information for businesses which want to get started in exporting their products to international markets. Click on the image to see a full size version.

1.Â Â Â The rise of managed services for SMBs Â­ while the uptake of cloudÂ services has helped drive a demand for managed services in 2012, it’s SMBsÂ who will benefit in the new year. As with most technologies as they moveÂ towards maturity and commoditisation, managed services providers have nowÂ reached a level of expertise that they can bring to bear in the SMB market.Â As a result, next year we’ll see increased adoption of managed services byÂ smaller companies who are able to realise the cost and efficiency benefitsÂ of moving all of their IT across to a provider with greatly reduced risk.

2.Â Â Â The rise of the enterprise app Â­ 2013 will mark the beginning of theÂ enterprise app store, and within a few years weÂ¹ll see a significant changeÂ in the way that the IT department offers technology to its employees.Â Gartner predicts that by 2014 the role of IT will shift from that of aÂ centralised planner to a market manager providing governance and brokerage
services to the user. As a result, we’re likely to see a move by ITÂ companies into specialist consultancy advice on developing infrastructuresÂ to support app stores, as well as the software and services to deliver it.

3.Â Â The year the CIO and IT department finally accepts its changing role Â­the CIO and IT department roles have undergone an evolution in the past tenÂ years. It’s not been radical but a slow and steady move away from providing
functional technology into a more strategic and service orientated role.Â Let’s face it, ten years ago the role of a CIO didnÂ¹t exist and the ITÂ director rarely sat on the board. Today, however that’s changed, but what’sÂ stayed the same is the reluctance by some to accept these changes which manyÂ view as bringing more responsibility with Electronic Cigarette less power. This couldn’t beÂ further from the truth. 2013 will be the year that senior IT figures finallyÂ accept and (hopefully) embrace the changes to way that technology can andÂ does support the organisation.

4.Â Â Â The rise of WiFi as a corporate network – we’ve already witnessed aÂ huge growth in mobile data traffic in 2012 – whether it reaches doubleÂ growth globally as Cisco predicted at the beginning of 2012 remains to beÂ seen. What is undeniable is that the growth is set to continue in 2013. InÂ the same report, Cisco went on to predict that the number of WiFi hotspotsÂ is expected to reach 2.7mill by 2014, with usage growing by 200%. Driven byÂ an increasing number of new devices and technology, as well as theÂ availability of hotspots, WiFi will become a recognised business network
tool in the next year. As more companies understand that mobility is the keyÂ to productivity for its workforce, then will come the realisation that theyÂ need to develop a policy for enabling access over private and public (andÂ unsecured) WiFi hotspots.

5.Â Â Analytics for medium sized businesses Â­while big data and analyticsÂ were the domain of the enterprise in 2012, 2013 will be the year thatÂ smaller companies are able to benefit from them as well. We’re seeing aÂ drive by the vendors and service providers to build analytics intoÂ everything as standard. This means that IT departments will be able to more easily derive information from data and add business value. The increasedÂ uptake of managed services and ITaaS over the next 12 months by SMBs willÂ mean that they are able to free up resources to concentrate on deriving the best and most valuable information from their existing data.

BYOD was arguably the biggest buzz word of 2012 and is now an unstoppable, user-driven wave which will continue to make a major impact on the IT world in 2013 and beyond. Smartphones, tablets and laptops all come under this category, as well as desktop PCs used remotely from home.

BYOD is a transformative technology and 2013 will see companies trying to integrate it into their networks. While tactical needs will drive integration, strategic requirements will become increasingly important.

Alongside this, and dependent on the penetration of Windows 8, we can expect to see the growth of Windows to Go secure USB sticks, which provide remote users with the supported version of the corporate desktop. These are available from a limited number of suppliers authorised by MicroSoft and include Imation’s IronKey Workspace for Windows to Go.

2. Mobile Device ManagementÂ

The very rapid growth of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, but particularly smartphones, led to concerns about their management and security in 2012. With employees using their smartphones for both business and personal use, the security and management issues became blurred. Mobile Device Management solutions were a strong growth area in 2012, which will accelerate in 2013.

Growth will be strongest for MDM solutions that offer features such as ensuring mobile device usage complies with company security policies, allocating access rights, managing configuration, updating policies, dealing with data leakage issues, and dealing with lost or stolen devices.

Additionally, MDM solutions need to address the problem of managing both employer-owned and employee owned devices, and differentiating between business use and personal use. A crucial component for continued growth will be the clear separation between the management of business and personal data on devices. There are over 100 suppliers in mobile device management many of them are good but niche solutions. The Gartner Magic Quadrant identifies the strategic leaders, which includes Zenprise.

3. High density wirelessÂ

Wireless requirements have been significantly incrementing over the last year and this trend will continue in 2013.Â BYOD has changed both the data transfer and performance expectations of users.Â However, these expectations have not been met, with many networks still inadequate in their coverage and performance.

The new 802.11ac standard, with 1 gigabit per second throughput rates, will be a key driver in organisations moving to high density wireless in 2013.Â High density wireless will provide companies with high coverage and high performance v2 electronic cigarette, supporting business critical applications and delivering complete site coverage.
As legacy wireless implementations buckle under the strain of demand organisations are moving from tactical deployment of wireless to strategic implementations. There will continue to be a shift from niche solutions towardsÂ more strategic solutions. Again, the Gartner Magic Quadrant identifies those companiesÂ with solutions that meet strategic as well as tactical needs. Alongside some of the more familiar names is Xirrus, which has been experiencing and will continue to experience stratospheric growth.

4. Data back-up and recoveryÂ

While large organisations have always been at the forefront of back-up and recovery, data centres and big data have put significant demands on them during 2012. Alongside that, smaller organisations have been under immense pressures from ever increasing data volumes, archiving and compliance requirements.

At the top end, new data replication technologies will have a major impact for data centres in 2013. For smaller organisations, the shift from tape will continue apace.Â For conservative organisations, the move to disc (and, in particular, RDX technologies which combine the best of tape and disc) will accelerate. Hybrid back-up to RDX and then the cloud will increase. In volume terms, the lowest move (but in market-hype the biggest) will be significant growth in direct back-up to the cloud.

RDX, hybrid and cloud data back-up solutions are available from vendors such as Imation and Barracuda Networks.

5.Â Data leakage protection

With growing volumes of data and with regulatory bodies increasingly prepared to levy fines for various non-compliance issues, data leakage protection will continue to be a major cause for concern during 2013. Companies will be looking closely at how to secure and manage their data as their network boundaries spread even wider, with increased use of social networking and BYOD, increased remote access, the rapid growth of wireless, increased virtualisation and the move towards convergence.

Increasingly, organisations will couple DLP products with SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solutions. DLP concerns will also continue the growth curve for authentication (much of it hosted in the cloud) and encryption, to protect data, both in motion and at rest. Some companies will look to hosted security services and the cloud to cope with an increasingly complex security situation.

SIEM and authentication solutions are available from companies such as LogLogic, Check Point VASCO and SafeNet .

Thousands of pounds continue to be spent on information security by companies of all shapes and sizes in order to “keep the bad guys out,” but with data leaks on the increase, it is clear that companies also face internal risks as well.

Regardless of the source of the breach â individuals with a grudge, organised crime or hackers impersonating the ID of an employee with malicious intent – the risk is just as great from an accidental breach.

The situation is exacerbated by the increasing complexity and distributed nature of IT systems, especially with the rise of employees using their own devices and applications for work purposes and cloud-based solutions extending the boundaries of the organisation further still. All these factors create more potential points of weakness, also described as âattack surfaceâ.

Organisations have a tendency to give individuals unnecessary levels of system and information access. But with a hefty fine of up to Â£500,000 from the Information Commissionerâs Office (ICO) for serious data breaches, the responsibility for security can no longer lie solely with the IT manager and must be addressed by the business as an issue of strategic importance.

Whilst the insider threat is a very real one, it can be easily avoided, with the right combination of technology, processes and policies. It also helps to understand the kind of personalities that may maliciously or inadvertently cause a problem, such as the disgruntled employee, who may feel âhard done byâ: perhaps they have been passed over for a promotion or know that they are likely to be in the next round of redundancies.

At the other end of the spectrum are the employees who may have the best intentions but can be the root cause of major problems. For example, the Lancashire Police Force was fined Â£70,000 after papers containing sensitive information were discovered by a member of the public on a street in Blackpool. An accident, no doubt, but one with serious implications.

Devastating breaches can also stem from innocuous actions such as giving away passwords, downloading unauthorised applications or tools from the internet that bring in malware, or through the most basic of email errors ( âI sent it to the wrong person!â)

Last but not vigrx plus relults least, is the risk from an individual that does not work for the organisation at all, but who has managed to gain remote access to secure information, by impersonating a legitimate internal user.

Data Security is not about building walls

So, what can be done? The first thing to understand is that the aim should be to create barriers, not walls. Â Organisations need to implement privilege management, taking the âGoldilocksâ approach (not too much privilege, not too little, but âjust rightâ). This ensures that employees can carry out their job effectively, without unnecessary rights or privileges that could create the Â potential for error.

Companies should also investigate tools specifically designed for managing privilege and preventing data leaks.. Solutions available can cover everything from: monitoring and alert systems; security information reporting; and management tools that siphon through web and code based interfaces to centrally control requested network tasks. These tasks are then deployed across all end points: cloud, virtual, servers, databases, desktops, and mobile.

There are some very simple best practices that companies can adopt, including disabling the capability for desktop users to operate as âadministratorsâ on their machines. Companies often make the mistake of giving their employees free reign over their laptops or PCs, thinking that this approach saves on hundreds or thousands of calls to the IT helpdesk, but this is a false economy: when individuals are allowed to operate as local administrators, organisations are exposed to serious security threats.

Another example is to stop bypassing of the logging-in process.Â However tempting this is, without this system of checks and balances companies cannot have granular control over what is going on, let alone work out what the root cause was when something goes wrong. For the more tech-savvy among readers, use of Microsoft UAC is not enough on its own, because it does not eliminate admin rights altogether and can cause a gaping hole in protection plans.

These are just some of the best practice techniques that can be adopted which together with the right supporting tools can stop the âinsider threatâ in its tracks. With the right ammunition, companies can ensure that that data breaches are virtually eliminated and prevention is better than cure.

This guest post has been contributed byÂ By Brent Thurrell, Director EMEA,Â BeyondTrust

]]>0Jason Carterhttp://newbusinesstechnology.co.uk/?p=7042014-10-26T18:37:33Z2012-07-04T19:13:55ZThis guest post has been contributed by Mark Fraser, CEO of zappit

Keeping up with the latest mobile technologies can be hard. Owners of small businesses would be forgiven for assuming that technologies such as Quick Response (QR) and Near Field Communication (NFC) are best left to bigger firms that have more resources and a deeper understanding of how they work. They would be wrong though.

But whether they execute a QR campaign themselves or use a third party to help them, how should SMEs go about this and what should they look for when they do â here are zappitâs top five tips for successful QR campaigns.

Make sure it fits with your existing branding. If you have a standalone unit, board or box on which you have your QR Code printed, do make it part of the overall brand experience. Have your logo near the QR Code and make sure the look and feel is consistent with other marketing and promotional materials.

Do not just send people to your website. The experience you provide to the person scanning the code is arguably the most important success factor with QR. Sending a customer to a desktop website will turn people off immediately and you should look to provide as compelling an experience on a mobile website as possible. This can be money-off, a competition entry, exclusive content, anything that will encourage people to make that scan.

Make the most of your data capture with analytics. QR Codes generate a lot of data on your customers and prospects. The right analytics dashboard can track mobile campaign redemption and conversion metrics, device manufacturers and operating systems as well as in-depth link and social media metrics, e.g. how many Facebook likes, Twitter follows or YouTube views occur during a campaign. This data can be hugely important so use analytics to maximise its value to your business.

QR Codes can be a powerful marketing tool. Not just for big business, they can help SMEs to get closer to customers and prospects and build long-standing relationships with them. Given the prominence of smartphones (almost half of the UK population has one), marketing to people via those phones is a wise move for any SME.